Apple and Google launch COVID-19 contact-tracing tech

Tech giants Apple and Google released a device on smartphones that help trace and contain the spread of coronavirus. Yahoo Finance’s On The Move panel discuss.

Video Transcript

JULIE HYMAN: We have been talking about what needs to happen for broadscale reopening to happen around the country. Contact tracing, by some accounts, is going to be a part of that. And large tech companies have said that they are going to be helping with that effort. So we've got some updates on that. Dan Howley, there has been some skepticism and also some security concerns and privacy concerns as we've talked about. But what's the latest here?

DAN HOWLEY: So the latest is that Google and Apple are releasing the APIs for contact tracing for public health authorities to start building apps for iPhone and Android users. So if you have an iPhone, you download the latest version of iOS, you'll get an update basically explaining that they have that new face mask feature where you can unlock your phone quickly if you have a face mask on but then there's the API for the contact tracing.

And essentially what that means is these health authorities will be able to build out the apps that allow for Bluetooth contact tracing. That means that if you add another user who both have the apps installed and are using them sit next to each other, you'll exchange these Bluetooth numbers. They're completely randomized, totally anonymous. So you won't have to worry about someone tracking you. And you will store their number. They will store your number.

If eventually one of you does contract COVID-19 or coronavirus, you would then self report in your health authority's app. Your numbers would then be uploaded to a server. And then everybody else who has the app will download daily the numbers that are associated with people who have been diagnosed or self-reported. And then they will then match up with the numbers that you have stored on your device, telling you if you've been in contact with someone who has coronavirus.

Now, the big problem with this though, is while it has all good intentions, it matters if more people use it. And if they don't use it, then this whole kind of idea is out the window because it will only be effective if a large number of people end up opting into this program. So eventually Google and Apple will release another version of this where you don't need to download these third party apps to use the contact tracing. You'd be able to use it without that. That is to reduce friction and so more people are more likely to use it. But again, it really does matter how many people use this.

MELODY HAHM: And Howls, of course, you know, agencies across Germany, individual states like Alabama, South Carolina, they were waiting for this, right, from Google and Apple because they know that consumers are so skeptical. And they are not going to be proactively downloading an app. Do you think because we sort of have raised our hands, being like, yeah, privacy's out the window, that there will be more consent, there will be more buy-in, as long as it's from one of these two behemoths?

DAN HOWLEY: Well, I think one of the things to keep in mind with this in particular was, you know, if you look at the likes of France or Germany, what they wanted was a solution that was less worried about privacy. They wanted a central repository where everybody's numbers would then be uploaded, whereas this is more kind of dispersed, where the only thing that will be uploaded to a server is this anonymized number. It's completely random. Again, it wouldn't be able to be tied to an individual's identity.

And so when you do download that, you won't know who you are in contact with that had COVID-19 or coronavirus. You would just know that you had been in contact with someone who was self-reporting the diagnosis. The self-reporting issue, that's an aside. The health authorities are going to figure out how to ensure that the self reporting is accurate and not just people trolling for fun. But I think really, if you want to go for privacy. This is the kind of outlet that you would end up wanting to use, not something that had a centralized server which is what Germany and France originally wanted and really did try to get Apple to bend to. But instead, the company said, no, we want to make privacy a cornerstone of this. And so now the countries have to go with what Apple wants.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Hey, Dan, real quick, anybody worried that an employer might somehow get hold of this information, keep you from going to your job?

DAN HOWLEY: See, that's something that you would have to worry about I think more so if they had gone with a centralized plan, whereas with this, it's unlikely that you would have to worry about something along those lines. Now, as our own Alexis Keenan had reported, there is an issue that if you're in a small town, you go to say a soccer game or something along those lines, you go out to public and you pass one of your neighbors and then it pops up that you were recently in contact with someone who has COVID-19, that might make you think, well, that neighbor is the one who has it. So that was something that she had reported on and covered as far as your own personal privacy.

But I think if you're in a large city, someplace where you're really nervous about the hotspots like we're in New York right now, you're going to be around enough people where you shouldn't run into an issue like that. But in smaller towns, there may be concerns along those lines. But again, it wouldn't tell you specifically that that person had it. It would be up to you to figure out if that number that popped up or if that notification that popped up really been touched off by that one individual.

JULIE HYMAN: One would hope if that individual had it, they wouldn't be out in public. They would be at home. But you know, personal responsibility obviously plays a role here. Dan Howley, thank you so much. And thanks also to Melody.